Audio 5:15
PNG PM Peter O'Neill arrest warrant stayed

Liam CochraneUpdated
Tue 17 Jun 2014, 1:08 PM AEST

Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill is continuing to protest his innocence over public corruption charges. Peter O'Neill was yesterday served with a warrant for his arrest. He is accused of authorising millions of dollars of alleged illegal payments from the PNG government to a law firm.

Transcript

SIMON SANTOW: To Papua New Guinea now and the prime minister is continuing to protest his innocence over public corruption charges.

He appears to be on a collision course with his own police force, specifically the country's anti-corruption taskforce.

Peter O'Neill was yesterday served with a warrant for his arrest.

He is accused of authorising millions of dollars of alleged illegal payments from the PNG government to a law firm.

But the prime minister says his signature in a letter was forged, and so far he's refusing to submit to a police interview.

Instead he's gone to the courts to try to injunct the process.

Our correspondent in Port Moresby Liam Cochrane joins me now.

Liam, you're at the courts now; talk us through what Peter O'Neill's lawyers asked for, first last night and now this morning.

LIAM COCHRANE: Well last night, the prime minister's legal team obtained a very temporary stay in proceedings, basically just putting off the arrest warrant overnight, and the matter has returned this morning for discussion, and there's been some very fascinating debate within the court about the prime minister's legal defence, which is still going on now.

SIMON SANTOW: And these allegations, Liam, have been swirling around Peter O'Neill for some time now. He's always denied them. What, essentially, is his defence?

LIAM COCHRANE: Well, the prime minister's legal time has taken this morning a very interesting round about kind of defence to the arrest warrant. They have essentially tried to make the prime minister a party to a separate case involving the tax status of these allegedly illegal payments to the law firm.

They say that - and they've been successful in that, the judge has granted them permission to make the prime minister part of that case. His legal team say that that will decide once and for all whether these payments were in fact illegal or whether they are valid.

And they are arguing that, at the moment, they are valid legal payments so how can the prime minister be arrested for corruption.

So that has been sorted out; the second point is whether the injunction, that covers the minister for finance in that case, could also extend to the prime minister. Those discussions are going on in the courts just near me now, and the early signs from the judge were a touch more promising.

He asked some pretty tough questions to the prime minister's legal team, saying: why should the civil court get involved in what is essentially a criminal case and stop the police from doing their jobs?

Now, the prime minister, as you say, has defended himself in this. He says the key letter that's a piece of evidence was forged, his signature was forged, and this is what prime minister Peter O'Neill had to say to SBS yesterday.

PETER O'NEILL: The warrants were based on forged letters which were originally from my office, that was the allegations.

Now, we have denied that these letters came from our office and our lawyers are now taking charge of the matter. It is basically motivated by politics.

But we have strong confidence in the judiciary up here. There is a very vibrant judiciary which I think will be even better and the truth will come out, so we are fairly confident.

SIMON SANTOW: Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill.

And, of course, Liam, a vital piece of evidence in the case against Peter O'Neill from the taskforce has been leaked. What is that?

LIAM COCHRANE: Well a letter from the taskforce leaked to the police commissioner outlining their fresh evidence and why this has come back into the spotlight.

There are several things, and one of them does involve Australia. A Sydney-based forensic company has submitted a report, saying that, in their opinion, prime minister Peter O'Neill's signature is genuine, that he did sign the letter that he claims to have been forged.

Another aspect of it is a second letter that Task Force Sweep says subsequently shows the prime minister trying to explain and clarify the first letter, which he seems to say didn't exist in the first place, and they're pointing out a contradiction seemingly there.

Interesting also to note the involvement of the recently sacked treasurer Don Polye in all of this.

He's provided a sworn statement and evidence to Task Force Sweep, so obviously some bad blood there, and it's coming back to haunt the prime minister.

SIMON SANTOW: And one more thing, Liam, there's also been an intriguing development involving the country's top police officer. Can you tell us what's happened in that case?

LIAM COCHRANE: That's right, police commissioner Tom Kulunga signed the arrest warrant in question, however, on Friday, he was himself sentenced in a separate case to contempt of court, was sentenced to seven months hard labour. He appealed that and was out on bail.

Now, yesterday, late yesterday, he was stood down and was replaced with Geoffrey Vaki, a former deputy, and there is supposed to be more information coming on that, both from the police and from the prime minister, both holding separate press conferences in around half an hour.

Although, that could be delayed a little bit if these legal proceedings take a little bit longer.